Adaptations: Sensory

Systems

Marine mammal sensory abilities

Life underwater presents unique challenges in trying

to navigate, find food, avoid predators, and interact

with conspecifics due to low light and visibility
conditions
Most species rely heavily on numerous sensory
systems working in concert
Many marine mammal systems highly modified from
terrestrial mammals

Mechanoreception
Includes:

Touch
Hydrodynamic reception
Sensing vibration and water disturbance
Audition
Sensing sound waves

Touch
Other than whiskers, receptor units are distributed

across entire body

Head area most sensitive for tactile information

Skin sensitivity in dolphins may be used to help with drag

reduction, but most interest in other species focuses on
whiskers

Most specialized mechanoreceptors are vibrissae

(whiskers or sinus hairs)

Specialized sensory hairs

Diameter and structure reflect does not reflect importance
but adaptation to signals received and transmitted
(sensitivity and function)
Used for tactile information but may also detect vibrations

Pinniped Vibrissae
Occur only on face
Differ from terrestrial mammals
Enlargement of whiskers and site of innervation different in pinnipeds
Stiffer hair in pinnipeds
Follicles surrounded by 3 (not 2) blood sinuses
Three types of vibrissae
Rhinal
1 or 2/side just posterior to nostril (phocids only)
Supraorbital
Above eye, mostly immobile
Mystacial
Upper lip, mobile

Most prominent and numerous

Walruses have most (600-700)

Pinniped vibrissae structure

Number of nerve fibers (1000-1600) passing through

capsule in Phoca hispida is 10x greater than

terrestrial species with sensitive whiskers
Mechanoreception is decreased when skin is cold, so
how do pinnipeds manage to use vibrissae in such
cold conditions?
No vasoconstriction to vibrissal pads (selective
heating)
Highlights importance of this sensory mode

Pinniped Vibrissae
Extremely sensitive

Baltic seal vibrissae have 10x nerve fibers of

terrestrial mammals
Size discrimination abilities of harbor seals and CA
sea lions are similar to primate hands and close to
visual capabilities of the seal which shows the
importance of this sensory system (Denhardt and
Kaminski 1995)
Move head side to side when object is small but
dont need to for large objects (touch multiple
vibrissae simultaneously)

Pinniped Vibrissae function

Tactile receptors
Mystacial vibrissae used for discrimination of textured
surfaces (location, shape, size, surface texture)
Navigation
Can help navigation in total darkness and low visibility
conditions
Use as speedometer, sense direction changes
Prey detection and capture
Even blind seals found to be well-fed in wild
Often used to scan for benthic prey

Cetacean Vibrissae
Only on head along margins of upper and lower jaws

Structure and innervation suggest sensory role

Mysticetes have ~100 very thin (0.3 mm dia)

immobile vibrissae on upper and lower jaw

Most odontocetes lose hair postnatally; 2-10 follicles
on either side of upper jaw

Exception are river dolphins which possess many well

developed immobile vibrissae on both jaws, but not yet shown
if they are true vibrissae

Sirenian Vibrissae
Entire muzzle covered with flexible bristle-like hairs
Used for discrimination of textured surfaces
Also have perioral bristles on the upper lip, oral

cavity and lower jaw that are very rigid and

moveable

Manipulation of objects, further exploration once grasped

Manatees can control facial vibrissae which may

have role in feeding

Sinus hairs also lightly scattered over body

The Sirenian mouth

Combination of muscular lips and different types of

facial vibrissae from a unique system

Manatees can use this haptic system in a
prehensile fashion to investigate objects and
manipulate food into mouth

Sea otter and polar bear vibrissae

Sea otters have all three types of vibrissae

Mystacial whiskers most numerous

Few vibrissae in polar bears

Hydrodynamic Reception
Can vibrissae of pinnipeds detect pelagic fish

through water disturbances? (Denhardt et al. 1998)

Vibrissae respond to vibrations, but took an experiment to

show that this worked for water disturbances
Vibrissae are tuned to frequency range of fish-generated
water movements
Fish leave trails of disturbance that last minutes
Harbor seals can detect and tract trails up to 40m long
(based on blind-folded seal following minisub)

Sensory abilities of vibrissae help explain success

of pinnipeds in dark and murky water

Audition (hearing)
Some changes in marine mammals
Closing mechanisms to protect the ear from penetrating
water under pressure at depth
Loss or reduction of external ear flaps to increase
streamlining
No real tradeoff for underwater hearing since external ear
tissue is acoustically transparent underwater
A major problem is how to transmit sounds to the

inner ear and localize sources

Sound localization
In horizontal plane, determined by interaural time

and intensity differences

Sound travels 4.5x faster in water so information
processing must be better

Tursiops has best discrimination ability for both types of

information of any mammal tested
can localize sounds other than echolocation separated by 23

Tursiops is equally good at sound localization in

vertical plane, but we dont know how!

How do marine mammals localize sounds?

Terrestrial mammals underwater cant localize

sounds

Bone conducts sound to both ears almost simultaneously

Auditory organs of odontocetes are largely isolated

from the skull to avoid bone conduction (less so in

other MM)
How does sound reach the inner ear in
odontocetes?

Sound reception in odontocetes

Two pathways

Ear canal functions to detect low frequency sounds

Mandible (lower jaw) can detect high frequency

sounds

Fat channels in lower jaw have impedance close to water and

channel sound over pan bone to petrotympanic bullae

Sound reception in pinnipeds

Appear to use conventional pathway

Bone conduction probably most important for

sound transmission

Should limit directional sensitivity with sound through skull

good sound-localization in some sp (Phoca vitulina)
Poor and variable in others (Zalophus califonianus)

Ear functional in air sensitivity depends on species

California sea lion: best in air
Common seal: equal
Northern elephant seal: better underwater

Hearing ranges and discrimination

Odontocetes have widest hearing range
Tursiops best hearing 12-75 kHz but up to 150 kHz detected
Can discriminate frequency difference of 0.2-0.8% from 2
kHz-130 kHz
Frequency discrimination is less precise and

operates over a lower frequency range in pinnipeds

and sirenians

Weeding out background noise

Marine mammals superior to terrestrial mammals in

detecting signals in noise

However, this is often not enough and vocalizations
may be used to reduce masking effects

Vision
Electromagnetic radiation changes intensity and

composition as it moves deeper in water

Becomes more monochromatic and spectrum
shifts to shorter wavelengths as depth increases due
to scattering and absorption
Eyes of marine mammals adapted to see in water
and in air

Habitat and vision

Spectral sensitivity of visual pigments should

correspond to the habitat where vision is most

important

Deep-sea fishes have blue-sensitive pigments

Shallow water fishes are green-sensitive

Generally fits for marine mammals

Shallow diving species green or blue-green

Deep-diving species tend to have blue

E.g. spotted seal, manatee, gray whale

E.g. elephant seal, Bairds beaked whale

Reflects habitats as well (e.g. open ocean is bluer; arctic is

greener, Weddell Seal)

Marine Mammal Eyes

Generally resemble nocturnal mammals
Dilatable pupil maximizes light collection
Choroid located between retina and outer coating of eye
with tapetum lucidum (light reflecting layer)
Retina dominated by rod-like receptors but cone-like
receptors (or second type or receptor) strongly suggested or
verified
Two types of cones in mammals
S: short wavelength sensitive
M/L: medium to long wavelength sensitive
Absence of S cones associated with nocturnal habits
Cetaceans and pinnipeds lack S cones, which appears to be
adaptation for redder coastal waters
Loss may have occurred early in evolution or should see Scones in pelagic species (we dont)

Do marine mammals see in color?

Mixed results from psychophysical methods

Demonstrated in spotted seals, California sea lions,

manatees
Failed in bottlenose dolphins
Fur seals can discriminate blue and green but not
red and yellow from grey shades
Color discrimination and adaptive nature of vision
is still unclear

Adaptations to seeing in water

Cornea and encased fluids have about the same

refractive index as saltwater; optically inefficient

Refractive power restricted to lens when
submerged
Most pinnipeds and cetaceans have a large almost
spherical lens with high refractive power allowing
normal vision underwater
Trade-off: when cornea regains power in air,
results in extreme near-sightedness

River dolphin eyes

Most river habitats extremely murky
Sensing light and dark for orienting to surface is all

that is important
Platanista indi and P. gangetica have lost the lens
of the eye and are essentially blind

Visual Acuity
Perception of fine detail at various distances

Visual acuity degrades faster in air than in water

Acuity underwater is poorer than in-air acuity of

many primates, but better than many terrestrial

mammals with good vision

e.g. elephants, antelope

Chemoreception: Olfaction
Relatively little attention in marine mammals

Relative to terrestrial mammals, marine mammal

olfactory systems

Somewhat reduced in pinnipeds and sirenians

Very reduced in baleen whales
Absent in odontocetes

Olfaction in pinnipeds
Olfactory systems well-developed

Have vomeronasal organ

Can detect scents of food in mouth
Olfaction may function in mother-pup recognition
More research needed to understand role of

olfaction in pinnipeds

Chemoreception: Gustation
Taste buds in oral cavity provide information about

dissolved substances
Taste appears to be limited in pinnipeds and small
odontocetes
Fewer taste buds than terrestrial mammals
They can discriminate some chemicals in sea water
and can detect the four primary tastes (sour,bitter,
salty, sweet) but for most of them, detection
thresholds are much higher (especially salty)
More taste buds present in sirenians

Taste in pinnipeds and other marine mammals

Use of taste in marine mammals poorly known

May be highly specialized for detecting salinity

differences at high (marine) salinities

Harbor seals shown to be very good at this

Could be used for finding vertical layers
For navigation to/along oceanic fronts?